The McCanns’ libelling of others: Martin Grime by The Madeleine McCann Research Group

18Mar

Dr Kate McCann, in her book ‘madeleine’, has comprehensively smeared top dog handler Martin Grime, who took his cadaver dogs out to Praia da Luz.

On pages 249-250 of ‘madeleine’, for example, she writes:

“At one point [during the screening of a video of the cadaver dog Eddie alerting to the scent of a corpse in the living room of the McCanns’ apartment] the handler [Martin Grime] directed the dogs to a spot behind the conch in the sitting room, close to the curtains. He called the dogs over to him to investigate this particular site.

“The dogs ultimately ‘alerted’. I felt myself starting to relax a little. This was not what I would call an exact science”. Dr Kate McCann is clearly querying Mr Grimes’ expertise.

In a second passage, Dr Kate McCann clearly implies that Mr Grime deliberately caused his cadaver dog to alert to their hired Renault Scenic car.

She writes:

“…we were in an underground garage where eight or so cars were parked, including our rented Renault Scenic. It was hard to miss: the windows were plastered with pictures of Madeleine. In medicine we would call this an ‘unblinded’ study, one that is susceptible to bias. One of the dogs ran straight past our car, nose in the air, heading towards the next vehicle.

“The handler stopped next to the Renault and called the dog. It obeyed, returned to him, but then ran off again. Staying by the car, PC Grime instructed the dog to come back several times and directed it to certain parts of the vehicle before it eventually supplied an alert by barking…when researching the validity of sniffer dog evidence later that month, Gerry would discover that false alerts can be attributable to the conscious or unconscious signals of the handler…this certainly seemed to be what was happening here…”

Dr Kate McCann is plainly suggesting, and has done so to hundreds of thousands of readers of her book, that Mr Grime is incompetent. Not only is this suggestion libellous, it is patently ludicrous. One must ask: would a person such as Mr Grime, whose professional livelihood depended on the 100% reliability of his dogs, proceed to suggest the past presence of a corpse at locations in the McCanns’ flat, and in their hired car, if Madeleine might still be alive somewhere?

She might have been found alive the next day

If so, Martin Grime’s professional credibility and his livelihood would have been ruined for ever.

Is there any footage on the video that shows the dog running off and having to be recalled by Mr Grime? It could be that Kate, yet again, is exaggerating here. Was Martin Grime standing by that particular car all the time? I am pretty certain that the dog wanted to have a sniff in all of the cars and would have covered the particular car in question during the course of investigating all of them; however Kate implies that Martin Grime just wanted the dog to investigate one car only, as if putting ideas into the dog's head. You cannot force a dog to sniff at an area it does not wish to sniff at and dogs in general are inquisitive creatures and I am sure this dog just wanted to cover all of the cars.

LJC wrote:Is there any footage on the video that shows the dog running off and having to be recalled by Mr Grime? It could be that Kate, yet again, is exaggerating here. Was Martin Grime standing by that particular car all the time? I am pretty certain that the dog wanted to have a sniff in all of the cars and would have covered the particular car in question during the course of investigating all of them; however Kate implies that Martin Grime just wanted the dog to investigate one car only, as if putting ideas into the dog's head. You cannot force a dog to sniff at an area it does not wish to sniff at and dogs in general are inquisitive creatures and I am sure this dog just wanted to cover all of the cars.

ETA: At about 8.00, Eddie is running around between the McCanns' vehicle and the one closest, with his nose in the air; he can smell something. I think this is to do with the dispersal of particles. An odour doesn't just stay over one place, particles disperse according to air currents. I think Eddie is detecting the odour all around in the air close to the McCann's car and having been shown the large ventilation fan earlier in the video, it would be interesting to know the direction of the air current from it.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________"You can run on for a long time, Run on for a long time, Run on for a long time, Sooner or later God'll cut you down." (Johnny Cash)

IIRC the situation explained by Martin Grimes was the dog had obviously picked up a scent and was ‘excited’ and running in large circles, trying to locate the source. It is Martin’s job to ‘focus’ the dog. Although a marvellous smelling tool, a dog’s mind is not analytical and therefore it is the handler’s job to ensure the search is thorough and covers all bases. Watching the video, as AnnaEsse says, the dog clearly becomes excited and starts to run off once it is near the Renault and therefore it is logical and perfectly correct for Grimes to call him back and check the Renault in more detail. It had nothing to do with posters in the car window as Kate implies in her book.

AnnaEsse wrote: ETA: At about 8.00, Eddie is running around between the McCanns' vehicle and the one closest, with his nose in the air; he can smell something. I think this is to do with the dispersal of particles. An odour doesn't just stay over one place, particles disperse according to air currents. I think Eddie is detecting the odour all around in the air close to the McCann's car and having been shown the large ventilation fan earlier in the video, it would be interesting to know the direction of the air current from it.

i read before this is exactly how these dogs work. for example if you were cutting onions in your kitchen, you would smell it immediately you came in the door, as you get closer to the onion the smell gets stronger. this is the reason the dogs run back and forth. they get the smell then try to find the strongest source.

i also watched a tv interview wherein kate mccann said their car was the only car with photos displayed of madeleine..........she obviously gives them credit for facial recognition talents but nothing else.

AnnaEsse wrote: ETA: At about 8.00, Eddie is running around between the McCanns' vehicle and the one closest, with his nose in the air; he can smell something. I think this is to do with the dispersal of particles. An odour doesn't just stay over one place, particles disperse according to air currents. I think Eddie is detecting the odour all around in the air close to the McCann's car and having been shown the large ventilation fan earlier in the video, it would be interesting to know the direction of the air current from it.

i read before this is exactly how these dogs work. for example if you were cutting onions in your kitchen, you would smell it immediately you came in the door, as you get closer to the onion the smell gets stronger. this is the reason the dogs run back and forth. they get the smell then try to find the strongest source.

i also watched a tv interview wherein kate mccann said their car was the only car with photos displayed of madeleine..........she obviously gives them credit for facial recognition talents but nothing else.

AnnaEsse wrote: ETA: At about 8.00, Eddie is running around between the McCanns' vehicle and the one closest, with his nose in the air; he can smell something. I think this is to do with the dispersal of particles. An odour doesn't just stay over one place, particles disperse according to air currents. I think Eddie is detecting the odour all around in the air close to the McCann's car and having been shown the large ventilation fan earlier in the video, it would be interesting to know the direction of the air current from it.

i read before this is exactly how these dogs work. for example if you were cutting onions in your kitchen, you would smell it immediately you came in the door, as you get closer to the onion the smell gets stronger. this is the reason the dogs run back and forth. they get the smell then try to find the strongest source.

i also watched a tv interview wherein kate mccann said their car was the only car with photos displayed of madeleine..........she obviously gives them credit for facial recognition talents but nothing else.

That's it, mossman. If there is a gas leak in your house, the particles of gas can pervade the whole house. In my house, I can tell sometimes that one of the cats has 'done something,' somewhere and then I have to follow my nose to discover where the smell is coming from because particles of whatever substance is causing the odour have dispersed and reached my nose! In the video "A nose for crime," the dogs sniff the air above the mound of earth where eventually the body is found, because the odour has risen into the air above the burial place.

When Eddie was taken to 5A, Martin Grime said that unusually Eddie didn't wait for the signal to begin. Eddie was so excited that he just bounded off into the apartment. Eddie knew that what he was looking for was in there because, for him, the smell was everywhere probably, dispersed throughout the apartment.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________"You can run on for a long time, Run on for a long time, Run on for a long time, Sooner or later God'll cut you down." (Johnny Cash)

SteveT wrote:I think that Mr.Grimes is looking forward to his day/days in court to respond to the McCanns accusations. With his track record I think that the jury will go with his explanations.

Hi Steve, will Martin Grimes be a Witness in Court.? I'm not sure, but this is a Civil Case and read that there would be 3 Judges, one to help the Defendant. and the case will not be tried in Public. Not sure if there will be any Witnesses,,,,,,but I' m sure one of our Portugese Members will tell us the procedure.

Seriously though, if this Review with a new Portugese Team is a sign that the old team did not do their job properly , it's worrying. However, if it is because this will be the last Report and the case closed it may be that the Portugese want to prove that they have done everything possible.

Seriously though, if this Review with a new Portugese Team is a sign that the old team did not do their job properly , it's worrying. However, if it is because this will be the last Report and the case closed it may be that the Portugese want to prove that they have done everything possible.

I honestly believe that a new PJ team has been used to make things more water tight, to remove claims by certain people that the PJ are covering their tracks. The amount of time that has been taken and the lack of official comments indicates to me that they are really mean business.

Seriously though, if this Review with a new Portugese Team is a sign that the old team did not do their job properly , it's worrying. However, if it is because this will be the last Report and the case closed it may be that the Portugese want to prove that they have done everything possible.

panda and wouldnt it be a forum party

Hi cass.....shall we start a collection ready to hire a Room in a posh London Hotel???

I honestly believe that a new PJ team has been used to make things more water tight, to remove claims by certain people that the PJ are covering their tracks. The amount of time that has been taken and the lack of official comments indicates to me that they are really mean business.

Yes SteveT I agree with you it will be the end of the case and also the McCanns if it is proved that the PJ did their job and they lose the Libel case against Amaral . Do we know whether a date has been set for the Trial?